Derrick Brown – 09-10 Review

Those two videos pretty well sum up my thoughts on Derrick Brown's rookie year – he tries to dunk everything. And that is a good thing – while he does not quite have the heft of a 4 yet, he has the right mentality for playing near the hoop – go strong. That attacking attitude helped Derrick get to the free throw line regularly, as he finished the year with a free throw rate of 48.6% – so a free throw nearly every other field goal attempt. That mark was good for third on the team, behind only Tyson Chandler (79.6%) and Gerald Wallace (58.6%).

What kept Derrick from getting more time on a team that needed size (and points) most of the season? Well, that lack of heft mentioned above also caused him to struggle on the glass, as he averaged just 5.8 rebounds total per 40 minutes of action – that is Boris Diaw level of board work, and Larry Brown can only take so much of that from a big. And despite the team saying in the preseason that Derrick was a 3 who may some day become a 4 – Derrick spent his time on the court this past season as a 4. And the other place that showed was defensively – Derrick was one of the few Bobcats to allow his opponent to put up better numbers than their season averages. Against Derrick, opponents compiled a PER of 15.2 when a 14.6 was expected. The bulk of that discrepancy? Rebounding – opponents grabbed 0.3 more offensive rebounds and 0.4 more defensive rebounds against Derrick per 40 minutes than normal. Yes, he was playing out of position – but with Stephen Jackson and Gerald Wallace rarely leaving the court, it was the only spot available to him, hence the low minutes.

Not much more to say on Derrick than that – he averaged just over 10 minutes a game, with most of that coming before the arrival of Tyrus Thomas, who was a bigger, better version of the human pogo stick. But Derrick did show enough in his limited time that he seems to have a place in the league, and was certainly a solid second round pick for the Bobcats. Now, if anyone can find some more dunking highlights of Brown, pass them along – I would certainly be glad to run a post of nothing but his various crams from this past season.